...The Z3100 doesn't explicitly include a setting for bidirectional printing or even say if it is possible. It has a slider for quality versus speed. The manual doesn't say what happens at the extremes of the slider. There are also settings for Best, Normal, and Fast -- but again, the manual doesn't explain what happens at those settings. What settings allow for a printing resolution of 1200x1200 with bidirectional printing? (With regards to rendering and printing resolution, the manual does say on page 168 that to get 1200 x 1200, you have to use "best" with "maximum detail" turned on and "extra passes" turned off. If you turn extra passes on, you can get 2400x1200 but only for glossy media.) Thanks for any responses.
Hi Marty,
There is a new HP "Technical Newsletter" document (March 26) that I've just seen that gives a whole bunch of paper presets and includes many of these points (per paper). Things like: carriage height, rendering resolution, printing resolution, # of passes, bi- or uni-directional, et al. The document could be of interest to you. It's called " Working with Custom Media". I'm guessing that it's available on the HP site in the Knowledge Center, but for some reason, I can't seem to locate those Technical Newsletters there (ANYONE SEE THEM? GOT A LINK?)
Adding to what Julian says, in general, talking to the HP engineers and from my Z experience, my understanding is:
* Because of multiple resolution variables, while "Max Detail" renders at a higher resolution, it offers no real print benefits except for text. Suggest just use "Best" in virtually all photo-image situations (or test it yourself).
* The default for # of passes varies depending on paper preset. In Best mode, it's either 8 or 16. Not sure if increase in passes is double the default number that's one guess.
Harald Johnson
P.S. MARTY: I see a message to me. Where is it in the forum???